At best, fans hoped that Mad Max: Fury Road would emerge as a passable blockbuster outing. It didn't have to be brilliant, mind - it just had to separate itself from the endless remakes and reboots already out there in the world, almost all of which had served only to destroy the reputations, legacies and good will brought on by their far better predecessors. It need only to be good; a solid movie, something to kick back and relax with on a Saturday afternoon. And with George Miller - director of the original Mad Max films - behind the camera, "good" didn't seem like too much to ask, did it? Not too much to ask at all. But it might have been too little. As it turns out, then, Mad Max: Fury Road isn't just "good." It's not "great," even. Going by what the critics who have already seen the movie have said, it's balls to the wall fantastic; a blockbuster movie verging on that of a fully-fledged masterpiece of the highest-order, and the most insanely, relentlessly watchable action movie of the decade so far. Seriously. Who, in all honestly, saw that coming? Who imagined that a movie mostly shot in 2013 and released two years later starring Tom Hardy in Mel Gibson's iconic role could emerge as one of the best movies of the year? Heck, it currently stands with an amazing 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on reviews provided by 58 movie critics. Only one critic disliked it. It doesn't make an inch of sense that a product like this has emerged in today's weightless blockbuster market, and yet here are 10 genuine reasons why critics are refusing to award Mad Max: Fury Road any less than four or five star reviews. What a lovely day!
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
